Mountain Lake PBS Productions » PBS http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog Colin Powers reflects on PBS programming for the Adirondacks, Lake Champlain, & Quebec, public broadcasting, and the future of media distribution. Sat, 07 Jan 2012 19:09:07 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Sundance Award winning Documantary “If a Tree Falls” – watch now on PBS http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/sundance-award-winning-documantary-if-a-tree-falls-watch-now-on-pbs/: http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/sundance-award-winning-documantary-if-a-tree-falls-watch-now-on-pbs/:#comments Mon, 19 Sep 2011 21:27:17 +0000 production http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/sundance-award-winning-documantary-if-a-tree-falls-watch-now-on-pbs/:
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front

Watch the full episode. See more POV.

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front explores two of America’s most pressing issues — environmentalism and terrorism — by lifting the veil on a radical environmental group the FBI calls America’s “number one domestic terrorism threat.” Daniel McGowan, a former member of the Earth Liberation Front, faces life in prison for two multimillion-dollar arsons against Oregon timber companies. What turned this working-class kid from Queens into an eco-warrior? Marshall Curry (Oscar®-nominated Street Fight, POV 2005) provides a nuanced and provocative account that is part coming-of-age story, part cautionary tale and part cops-and-robbers thriller.

via pbs.org

 

]]> http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/sundance-award-winning-documantary-if-a-tree-falls-watch-now-on-pbs/:/feed/ 0 Tom Cruise’s Minority Report computer interface is pretty much here… http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/tom-cruises-minority-report-computer-interface-is-pretty-much-here/: http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/tom-cruises-minority-report-computer-interface-is-pretty-much-here/:#comments Tue, 06 Sep 2011 22:43:06 +0000 production http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/tom-cruises-minority-report-computer-interface-is-pretty-much-here/:

This segment is a few months old, but creative hacking is pretty timeless.


How ‘gesture technology’ like Microsoft Kinect will change the way we live | Need to Know

Here’s a term you may not have heard yet — but we can just about guarantee that you will. It’s called “gesture technology” — using our body movements to control a computer. No keyboard, no mouse. It may represent a major leap in how we will communicate in the digital world. It might sound like just another way to sell gaming devices, but this story is about how gaming technology is being used to change the way we live.

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.

via pbs.org

]]> http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/tom-cruises-minority-report-computer-interface-is-pretty-much-here/:/feed/ 0 KCET-TV in $50-million deal for new local shows http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/kcet-tv-in-50-million-deal-for-new-local-shows/: http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/kcet-tv-in-50-million-deal-for-new-local-shows/:#comments Thu, 18 Aug 2011 23:57:29 +0000 production http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/kcet-tv-in-50-million-deal-for-new-local-shows/:

Much of the PBS system is watching KCET closely to see how it fares without the PBS “icon” series shows to keep an audience. While cutting deals like this one makes headlines, taking a look at the daily program schedule leaves me really underwhelmed with the offerings. Five hours of cooking shows each weekday? Still, I’m hoping for the best.



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KCET-TV in $50-million deal for new local shows

Since KCET-TV Channel 28 left the PBS network in January, one big question was how the newly independent public station could find unique programs to replace network shows like “Charlie Rose” and “Sesame Street.” Now it’s hoping to take a big step toward that goal with an entrepreneurial partnership that could be worth as much as $50 million.

The station announced today that it will team with Dominique Bigle, a former Walt Disney Co. executive and the founder of an Encino-based visual-effects and production company called Eyetronics Media & Studios, to produce and acquire original series about Southern California. KCET says it hopes to start producing the first five shows by the end of the year and will add staff to do so.

Bigle is the son of Armand Bigle, who helped oversee Disney’s expansion into Europe. In an interview, KCET chief Al Jerome said he met Bigle through Steve Unger, an executive recruiter, and the pair had been talking for months about a deal.

The KCET programs will celebrate “the vibrancy of Southern California’s people, places, and culture, as well as its history,” the station said in a release. While not offering titles or specifics, executives said the shows will cover such topics as food, technology and entertainment. Details will be forthcoming in several weeks, they added.

KCET left PBS in January after months of disputes over dues and other issues. Many of the programs the station has aired this year are either reruns, such as the old British crime series “Prime Suspect,” or general-interest news shows from overseas providers, such as Al-Jazeera or Japan’s NHK. 

The deal is KCET’s largest cash infusion for new programming since a $50-million partnership with oil giant BP and other donors led to a “A Place of Our Own,” a nationally distributed series for preschool caregivers.

ALSO:

via latimesblogs.latimes.com

]]> http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/kcet-tv-in-50-million-deal-for-new-local-shows/:/feed/ 0 “Rules of Engagement,” – a critical change of mindset for pubmedia http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/rules-of-engagement-a-critical-change-of-mindset-for-pubmedia/: http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/rules-of-engagement-a-critical-change-of-mindset-for-pubmedia/:#comments Thu, 11 Aug 2011 18:17:15 +0000 production http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/rules-of-engagement-a-critical-change-of-mindset-for-pubmedia/:

White man talking with woman in Somali garb at gas station in shot from NPT Next Door Neighbors video

“We had to learn — and we have to keep reminding ourselves — to start by listening to the community and sometimes leave the camera at home,” said Nashville Public Television President Beth Curley about the station’s Next Door Neighbors project. Pictured: scene from Next Door Neighbors program about the city’s Somali refugees.

Rules of Engagement 1

New mindset requires new habits: listen, earn trust, partner-up

The professionals who work to engage public media groups in their communities are still learning what it takes. In a series of articles, associates of the Wisconsin-based National Center for Media Engagement will lay out what they’ve learned. Executive Director Charles Meyer begins the series. Continued…

 

]]> http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/rules-of-engagement-a-critical-change-of-mindset-for-pubmedia/:/feed/ 0 PBS needs to settle into “the gig economy,” 2011 http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/pbs-needs-to-settle-into-the-gig-economy-2011/: http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/pbs-needs-to-settle-into-the-gig-economy-2011/:#comments Mon, 21 Feb 2011 20:31:00 +0000 production http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/pbs-needs-to-settle-into-the-gig-economy-2011/: Trina Cutter has outlined an agile business model for PBS stations that needs to be seriously embraced by stations facing budget shortfalls, increased expectations and younger workers with different workplace expectations. Even stations such as ours (Mountain Lake PBS) that still operate with full-time staffers can adopt a “gig economy” mindset. (This article is abridged for this blog entry.)

Into the gig economy

Let’s not dream about bigger staffs
and more taxpayer funding

The author is president of Western Reserve Public Media (WNEO/ WEAO), which serves Akron, Youngstown and Kent in northeast Ohio.

Published in Current, Jan. 10, 2011
Commentary by Trina Cutter

The world is going through a major economic transformation. If public media is going to survive, much less thrive, it needs to break out of its 20th-century mode of operation and figure out how to operate in what Daily Beast editor Tina Brown calls  “the gig economy.”

…no matter how our governance is structured, no matter how we direct our resources, no matter how much diversity we embrace and what we call ourselves, at the end of the day we are a business that operates in a market economy.

…public media should take a cue from Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams’ book, Wikinomics, or Stanley M. Davis and Christopher Meyer’s book, Future Wealth, and develop an operating model around Brown’s “gig economy” — piecework contracted project by project. It’s a major economic shift away from institutional employees to Form 1099 contract employees. Staffs contract and expand to meet the production needs of an organization.

Public television stations that put together and then disband a team for a grant-funded project already know how to operate in a gig economy. How we buy programs from syndicators is gig economics. If we hire outside freelancers to create our websites, stream our video, manage interactivity or process our web transactions, we are using the gig model. Independent producers have always operated gig by gig. It allows the coordinator to bring together the right people and resources to put a program together without having the mess and fuss of ongoing human resource expenses.

A gig model allows for more diversity, the worker’s expertise tends to be much greater, and output is significantly increased. Case in point, Western Reserve Public Media is a $5 million operation with 17 full-time staff members. We engage a pool of 20 to 25 seasoned “flex employees” to work on a per-project basis.

Western Reserve PBS’s broadcasts spans the northeast Ohio region — Cleveland, Akron, Canton and Youngstown — and we reach more than 1 million viewers a month. We don’t have an endowment. Unlike other arts organizations in our region, we don’t receive $1 million or more a year in county money from “sin taxes” on cigarettes and tobacco. We don’t have a Board of Directors that raises funds for our organization. We don’t have outside marketing firms creating slick campaigns. We are not housed in a multi-million-dollar building. And, aside from the Community Service Grant we receive from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for our Youngstown station, we do not receive special project funding from CPB.

Yet we offer four 24/7 noncommercial public television services: Western Reserve PBS, Fusion, MHz Worldview and V-me — the first two programmed locally and the other two presenting national program ervices that are unique to the market. Between 2007 and 2010, we produced 35 local program and series, including two ongoing weekly series, and we serve as the region’s premier television outlet for local independent producers. In the 2010 academic year, our Educational Services division offered 184 workshops to 1,995 teachers and added two more multimedia projects for use in regional K-12 classrooms to our already long list of multimedia projects.

… Department heads are project managers or facilitators. They put together the right teams and ensure that the teams have the necessary resources to do the job. Department heads don’t mediate constant personnel conflicts and get bogged down in performance evaluations because in a gig world a 1099 “employee” gets the job done right or they are not hired again. Our support staff members are masters at multitasking. Engineers aren’t just doing broadcast engineering, for example — they’re our liaisons with the outsourced IT network manager; they keep master control functioning; they trouble-shoot voice-over-IP issues; and they are the point-people for the transmitter sites.

For those of us accustomed to the functional management model, it’s unnerving to step into a gig economy. The rules of the road haven’t been written for public TV. For one, federal labor laws and Equal Employment Opportunity regulations were enacted for a different economy.

via current.org
]]> http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/pbs-needs-to-settle-into-the-gig-economy-2011/:/feed/ 0 Cirque du Soleil from Mountain Lake PBS http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/cirque-du-soleil-from-mountain-lake-pbs/: http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/cirque-du-soleil-from-mountain-lake-pbs/:#comments Tue, 19 Oct 2010 21:09:06 +0000 production http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/cirque-du-soleil-from-mountain-lake-pbs/:
via youtube.com

Mountain Lake PBS’ newest production caps 2 1/2 years of work with one of Montreal’s greatest institutions… Cirque du Soleil. The program will be seen nationwide for two years as a PBS fundraiser. We’re thrilled to support public television while showcasing a great regional success story.

]]> http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/cirque-du-soleil-from-mountain-lake-pbs/:/feed/ 0 Let’s Put the ‘Public’ back in Public Broadcasting http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/let%e2%80%99s-put-the-%e2%80%98public%e2%80%99-back-in-public-broadcasting/: http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/let%e2%80%99s-put-the-%e2%80%98public%e2%80%99-back-in-public-broadcasting/:#comments Fri, 21 May 2010 00:49:55 +0000 production http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/let%e2%80%99s-put-the-%e2%80%98public%e2%80%99-back-in-public-broadcasting/:

I usually try to shorten reposted blogs, but this Gwen Ifill/Jay Rosen dialogue has really caught my interest. I’m convinced that public media needs to be looking at itself HARDER and with more real concern than we are. Because the tidal wave is about to wash over us… (for more background on the Ifill/Rosen story click on the “The Nobility is Annoyed” link near the bottom)

Cutting edge… 1962

Yesterday, while I was sitting at my kitchen table typing out my angry screed about Gwen Ifill, I was also listening to NPR, as I do every morning.

NPR happened to be running their annual beg-a-thon, their fundraising drive, which reminded me that Public Radio and PBS, the PUBLIC Broadcasting Corporation, are paid for by us, the listeners, or viewers. That is, PBS is ‘our’ network.  Viacom may belong to Sumner Redstone and NBC may soon belong to Comcast, but PBS belongs to us.  As Ronald Reagan said, “I paid for that microphone”.

This is particularly annoying when it comes to Ms. Ifill and the pure arrogance of PBS.

Initially irritated with Ms. Ifill and her cavalier treatment of Prof. Jay Rosen, I posted a response on her PBS’s website, on which she writes a blog.  I posted a response because the blog calls for comments. And even if responses are limited to 500 characters (think of this as a kind of super-twitter, I suppose), I was rather astonished that Ms. Ifill did not deign to publish my response.  I was so astonished,  I posted again. In fact, I posted five times.

Nothing.

Now, what responses did Ms. Ifill choose to post?

Here they are:

thank you Gwen the lone voice whispering reason in the wilderness

and

Thank you for your good job of hosting and presenting the views of the reporters on washington week. It is one of my favorite media presentations. I am not one who is pleased with the divergence from “Cronkite” news to opinion dominated media programs. I applaud the program and your hosting of it. I will continue to be a faithful viewer.

or this one:

Double thank you for reasoned, focused, in-depth reporting and analysis. Thank you for not letting us know your own opinions, and thank you for giving me the information I need to make up my own mind. Thank you for being you. We love you for your generosity of spirit and for being professional in your work. And lastly, thank God for PBS which allows us to get NEWS and not opinions! What in the world would we do without you.

You see. And all this time I thought Ms. Ifill was working for “Public” broadcasting.
She is not.

She is working for Pravada. Or so she seems to believe.  Perhaps she has confused ‘public’ broadcasting with ‘The People’s Broadcasting’ as in ‘The People’s Democratic Republic of China Broadcasting’.

Now, here is the interesting thing about ‘Public’ Broadcasting.

When it was founded in the 1960s, (thank you Ed Murrow), the technology of television and video was so expensive and so complex that it cost millions (even a lot then!) to put someone on the air and push that image through the em spectrum into millions of homes. So PBS gave voice to those who could not get onto NBC or ABC or CBS (as that was all there was).  It was a good idea for 1962.

But that was a long time ago.

The technology has changed.

Today, the Public uploads 23 hours of video to YouTube every minute.

The Public posts 240 million blogs on the web.

The Public has something to say.

Perhaps in the 21st century Public Broadcasting should be reflective of what the Public is talking about.  Perhaps Public Broadcasting should put itself front and center of the new technologies that are liberating millions of voices. Perhaps Public Broadcasting could be about becoming a publisher and editor for those millions of voices and giving them a larger and more focused platform than YouTube does, as opposed to becoming a highly controlled vehicle for Ms. Ifill to express her opinions and bathe herself in praise.

The Public has a voice and an opinion and wants to be heard. Freed of the constraints of the need to sell commercial time and appeal to the largest possible audience, perhaps Public Broadcasting could place itself on the cutting edge of the obvious revolution that is happening before our eyes in public discourse and become the pinnacle of that vibrant discussion.

This, I think, we would all be more than happy to pay for.

Instead, what is our money buying us?

Gwen Ifill… that ‘one voice whispering in the wilderness’.

Come on.

Lone Voice?

Wilderness?

Related posts:

  1. The Nobility Is Annoyed Oh no, Ms Ifill… PBS’ Gwen Ifill is annoyed….
  2. Al Atwitter tell me something…. I was on the Curtis Sliwa…
  3. Hitler & Twitter Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer…. (25) New technologies…
  4. Should News Take Place in the Public Place? Everyone has a story to tell… The Knight Foundation…
  5. The BBC’s “Digital Revolution” Think ‘documentary filmmaker’ and you conjure up images of the…
via rosenblumtv.com

]]> http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/let%e2%80%99s-put-the-%e2%80%98public%e2%80%99-back-in-public-broadcasting/:/feed/ 0 Lobby group wants to make docs a priority for Public Television http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/lobby-group-wants-to-make-docs-a-priority-for-public-television/: http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/lobby-group-wants-to-make-docs-a-priority-for-public-television/:#comments Fri, 14 May 2010 03:41:41 +0000 production http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/lobby-group-wants-to-make-docs-a-priority-for-public-television/:
This group is looking worldwide, but I wonder how PBS might respond to this group’s plea.

Lobby group wants to make docs a priority for PSBs

by Kelly Anderson

At the recent Hot Docs festival, MercuryMedia CEO Tim Sparke took the opportunity to announce the launch of the Documentary Distributors’ Association, a group that aims to lobby public service broadcasters to consider airing more documentaries.

Sparke says the idea behind the Documentary Distributor’ Association came from MercuryMedia chairman and former ITV director of television Simon Shaps. “He felt it was something that the industry really needed,” says Sparke. Shaps will be chairman of the DDA, while Sparke’s role right now is to get the word out and get the first 10 distributor members on board.

The main goal is to approach public service broadcasters to get docs back on their schedules. “It’s about documentary fighting – and I use that word guardedly – for an enhanced position within television schedules and on other platforms,” says Sparke. “There’s no doubt in my mind that television is still the preeminent place for telling people about what’s going on in the world and documentary is the single most important tool [for] telling people that.”

CTD…

via realscreen.com

]]> http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/lobby-group-wants-to-make-docs-a-priority-for-public-television/:/feed/ 0 Ouch! “Need to Know” takes one for the team! http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/ouch-takes-team/: http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/ouch-takes-team/:#comments Wed, 12 May 2010 21:02:22 +0000 production http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/?p=373 Washington Post Critic takes on PBS for replacing Moyers with Need to Know:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/10/AR2010051005113.html

I’m not sure it is really deserved. Watch here and decide for yourself: http://video.mountainlake.org/program/1458405365/

]]> http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/ouch-takes-team/:/feed/ 0 Pitch Perfect at the Toronto Documentary Forum http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/pitch-perfect-at-the-toronto-documentary-forum/: http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/pitch-perfect-at-the-toronto-documentary-forum/:#comments Mon, 10 May 2010 15:21:55 +0000 production http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/pitch-perfect-at-the-toronto-documentary-forum/:

Dispatch from Toronto | Hot Docs ’10: Pitch Perfect at the Toronto Documentary Forum

by Basil Tsiokos (May 7, 2010)
Dispatch from Toronto | Hot Docs ’10: Pitch Perfect at the Toronto Documentary Forum

The scene at the Toronto Documentary Forum. Photo courtesy of Hot Docs/Joseph Michael.

Hundreds of broadcasters, funders, filmmakers, and other observers convened this Wednesday and Thursday morning for the Toronto Documentary Forum, North America’s largest documentary market, as part of the ongoing Hot Docs film festival. Led for the second year by Elizabeth Radshaw, the TDF selects twenty promising new projects for filmmakers to pitch for potential co-production support, providing invaluable access to the movers and shakers of the non-fiction world and allowing them to make an early impression that may pay off with a broadcast deal or at least open a door to acquisition meetings down the line.

via indiewire.com

A number of strong-sounding docs got pitched at this year’s TDF at HotDocs… but I’m a little astounded by the proposed budgets. When producers of fiction features (generally higher grossing than docs) are being told to keep budgets to the $200K range (see Ted Hope’s comments at IFP marketplace last fall), how do documentary makers think their ever going to recoup these budgets?

]]> http://mlpbsproductions.org/blog/pitch-perfect-at-the-toronto-documentary-forum/:/feed/ 0